Attendance
There is a lot of talk about the low attendance numbers for the Mariners at Safeco field this season. Some speculate that it is due to the cloudier/cooler weather we have been having this spring. Others say it is because they are playing horribly (14-22.) Whatever, the reason, nobody is going to the games. If you factor out the recent weekend series against the Yankees, the average attendance at their last 7 games is 16,768, 35.3% of capacity. In fact, 8 of the 11 lowest attended games in Safeco history have happened this season. Tim, Chelsea, Rachel and I went to the game on Friday night to help the numbers. I was hoping to see Richie Sexson start another fight, but it didn't happen. Thursday was the last game of the series with the Rangers.
This got me interested in which teams have the best attendance numbers. ESPN has a handy chart of those stats. It turns out that Boston is average 103.9% of capacity for this season and the Cubs are in second place with 97.1%. Seattle is down at 18 and falling fast. That page also shows which teams help to draw the biggest crowds for away games. Again, Boston is #1 and the Cubs are #2. (The Washington Nationals line of data seems to be messed up so ignore it.)
Too bad the Cubs aren't coming to Safeco during interleague play this year. It would help drive up attendance numbers and give me a chance to see them play.
The latest version of Windows Live Photo Gallery has an option to stitch together pictures into a panoramic image. I've used other programs to do this in the past and tried to do it manually, but I've never seen a program do it this well. You can click on the panorama below to see the full size (5MB) image. One of the transitions is visible, but overall it's very impressive. I'm looking forward to making some more of these over the summer on hiking trips.
